Court Action Sought
on New Jersey
Child Welfare System
By RICHARD LEZIN
JONES and MARIA NEWMAN, NYTimes on the Web, October 11, 2005
TRENTON, NJ -- Saying they
have lost confidence in New Jersey's ability to improve its ailing child welfare
system, representatives of a child advocacy group asked a federal judge to
intervene in the reform effort, setting the stage for a potential court takeover
of the system.
The group, Children's Rights Inc., whose lawsuit against the state led to a
settlement that required the reform plan, made its case today after the
independent panel charged with monitoring the court-ordered overhaul of the
welfare agency said in a long-awaited report that the state had not met most of
its goals to improve the agency.
The report, a blistering critique of the state's child welfare system, found the
state had largely failed at putting key measures in place to fix the
overburdened system and keep children safe.
While giving the state credit for some progress, including hiring more
caseworkers to reduce the workload among staff, the state's Child Welfare Panel
said that "the state's record in the first year of implementing the reform plan
is on the whole a disappointing one."
During a hearing in federal court to report on the agency's progress, Susan
Lambiase, the associate director of Children's Rights Inc., based in Manhattan,
dramatically flung on the table a request for mediation, which would precede the
filing of a motion to put the agency into receivership.
"No other recourse is viable at this point," Ms. Lambiase said. "The
children deserve more than they have gotten. A lot of time and money has
been spent. The state is unable to do the job the children need and
deserve without a major course correction that just hasn't come."
The judge, Stanley R. Chesler, agreed to let the matter go into mediation, in
which the panel that issued the report will hear from both sides to see if they
can agree to a plan to put the reforms in place to everyone's satisfaction.
But he strongly advised both sides to work hard to come together, because he
said a motion to put the agency into receivership would not solve the problems
facing the state's most vulnerable children.
"If we get to the point where we have to litigate this case, what I will tell
you, ladies and gentlemen, is you will have failed," the judge said.
Stefanie A. Brand, an assistant attorney general arguing the case for the state,
pleaded for more time.
"We know there's more to be done and we're committed to doing it," she said.
"We do not believe that reform has been a total failure."
The state will have three days to respond to the mediation request, and then the
panel will hear the matter for 10 days, court officials said. After that,
the children's rights group will have a month to decide if they still want to
file a motion to ask that the agency be placed in receivership.
In its 88-page report, which follows one issued in March, the panel said New
Jersey has been too slow to improve its system to protect abused or neglected
children. The panel found that New Jersey officials have failed to ensure
that the majority of the state's foster children receive regular medical
check-ups or even receive required monthly visits by child welfare workers.
New Jersey has also been slow to streamline its adoption procedures, the report
said, and many children are still languishing in shelters or in costly
out-of-state foster care placements while awaiting more permanent living
arrangements.
Also, the report noted that while workers are now each responsible for 14
families on average, about 20 caseworkers were still responsible for as many as
30 families each, which is more than the standard considered safe.
"The state has made far less progress than it should have during this first
year," the report said. "In the community, and among staff, there is a
strong sense of disappointment and confusion."
The report also said that even if the state did "excellent work during the next
monitoring period, it is now far enough behind in many areas that it will be
unable to meet some of its commitments."
The agency has been under scrutiny for several years, but a case in 2003 -- in
which four boys who were found severely malnourished in a Camden County foster
home -- prompted national outrage and spurred calls for immediate changes.
Last month, Edward E. Cotton, leader of the Division of Youth and Family
Services, announced his resignation. Several people briefed on his
departure said Mr. Cotton was pressured to resign by state officials
disappointed by the slow pace of the reform plan.
Mr. Cotton, however, told The New York Times in an interview that he was not
pressured to leave.
"Pressured to leave because of what?" he said. "We feel like we've made
substantial progress."
Richard Lezin Jones reported from Trenton for this article,
and Maria Newman reported from New York.
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